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9:43am: Privately the Yankees are thrilled with the current situation, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. If Rodriguez does have connections to the PED provider, the Yankees’ chances of severing ties with Rodriguez and saving much of the $114MM remaining on his contract increase. That said, the club would need a 'Hail Mary' to succeed, Sherman writes.

7:54am: Though the Yankees probably can’t void Alex Rodriguez’s contract following the third baseman’s connections to a Miami performance enhancing drugs clinic, they might not need to do so. As Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports, there’s a scenario that would allow Rodriguez to collect the $114MM remaining on his deal without relying on the Yankees to pay most of that sum.

If Rodriguez finds a doctor who says he’s suffering from a career-ending hip injury it’d be possible to continue collecting his salary without playing again. In this scenario the Yankees would collect up to 85% of Rodriguez’s salary from insurance, Rosenthal reports. For the Yankees to collect at that level, Rodriguez would have to miss a full season -- a possibility recently acknowledged by general manager Brian Cashman.

Conversely, if Rodriguez were to retire he would forfeit his remaining salary. The 37-year-old underwent a hip operation this offseason and isn’t expected to return before July. If Rodriguez continues rehabbing without improvement, it’s possible a doctor could determine that he’s physically unable to perform. As Rosenthal notes, such a contention would prompt insurance companies to argue that Rodriguez could still play, or that PEDs led to his inability to play.

I don't have any sympathy for either Rodriguez or the Yankees. NY signed him to an ABSURD contract that anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size would have known would become a train wreck at some point AND Rodriguez apparently thought he could beat the system even after he should have known that MLB was going to drop the hammer on cheaters.

I'm torn on this. On one hand I hope the Yanks are stuck with the contract since they were stupid enough to offer it. On the other hand my hatred for Aroid runs so deep that I hope he gets a lifetime ban, the guy is a cheater. period. He is no better than Shoeless Joe or Pete Rose in my opinion. Oh and his career is over any way.

ofahn wrote:I don't have any sympathy for either Rodriguez or the Yankees. NY signed him to an ABSURD contract that anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size would have known would become a train wreck at some point AND Rodriguez apparently thought he could beat the system even after he should have known that MLB was going to drop the hammer on cheaters.

They both deserve whatever they get in this mess.

The funny thing is that they absorbed that bad Texas contract and gave him even more money to boot. They both deserve each other. They're both scumbags. Plus Arod won't approve a trade so they're stuck with him.

No. Only ONE player (Eddie Cicotte) ever received any money. The rest of the Eight (including Jackson) were suspect based on heresay, associations, and speculation. I think Jackson's performance in the series makes the case that he was trying to win.

Several sources have Shoeless Joe taking the money along with other players. This quote is from suite 101

The 1919 Black Sox Almost Get Away With It

During the grand jury investigation, Cicotte confessed to accepting the gambler's money to throw the games that he had pitched. Jackson acknowledged taking the money, but denied that he played any less than his best. Weaver denied all involvement with the scheme. Right before the trial began, the confessions suddenly disappeared from the prosecutor’s office. Cicotte and Jackson recanted their confessions, and the judge threw the entire case out due to lack of evidence. Something was rotten in the City of Chicago.

However, the major leagues were not so forgiving. The damage to the sport caused the owners to appoint Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Baseball Commissioner in 1920. The day after his appointment, Landis banned the eight implicated players for life, including future Hall of Famers Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte. Neither player has ever been reinstated.

Until the day that he died, Weaver continued to deny any involvement with the scandal. Shoeless Joe acknowledged taking money, but no one could ever prove that he was at all responsible for throwing the Series.

dan72 wrote:Several sources have Shoeless Joe taking the money along with other players. This quote is from suite 101

The 1919 Black Sox Almost Get Away With It

During the grand jury investigation, Cicotte confessed to accepting the gambler's money to throw the games that he had pitched. Jackson acknowledged taking the money, but denied that he played any less than his best. Weaver denied all involvement with the scheme. Right before the trial began, the confessions suddenly disappeared from the prosecutor’s office. Cicotte and Jackson recanted their confessions, and the judge threw the entire case out due to lack of evidence. Something was rotten in the City of Chicago.

However, the major leagues were not so forgiving. The damage to the sport caused the owners to appoint Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Baseball Commissioner in 1920. The day after his appointment, Landis banned the eight implicated players for life, including future Hall of Famers Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte. Neither player has ever been reinstated.

Until the day that he died, Weaver continued to deny any involvement with the scandal. Shoeless Joe acknowledged taking money, but no one could ever prove that he was at all responsible for throwing the Series.

There are reams of stories written about that mess, but few of them make the effort to explain that Joe Jackson was a functional illiterate with a diminished IQ with a need to "be one of the boys". His story changed multiple times because he was simply parroting what he had been told to say by someone else. Considering who it was that put up the money for the fix do you really believe that if Joe Jackson had actually been paid any money and then double crossed those guys that he would have lived a full life?

The Yankees may not need to void his contract. Rodriguez is looking at a suspension of over 200 games and I wouldn't be surprised if the league asks for a lifetime suspension but is willing to bargain down to something less IF the Yankees are given the option to convert his contract to a NON guaranteed one. IMO this is a precedent that baseball wants to establish and the Rodriguez mess is the perfect opportunity to do so.

There are strong indications that MLB will announce all the suspensions in the Biogenesis case this week, according to Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. It is believed MLB wants to make the suspensions formal this week so that first-time offenders can serve a 50 game suspension inside of the 2013 season. That, in theory, would give players incentive not to appeal the decision and enter 2014 with a clean slate.

In the case of Alex Rodriguez, he could be hit with a suspension that will sideline him for the rest of this season and all of 2014. Rodriguez’s representatives met with MLB officials in the past few days in what was likely an effort to better gauge the potential penalties coming his way.

His suspension will be substantial as MLB believes the combination of being a user and obstructing the case demands a much stiffer penalty than what was given to Ryan Braun. It is even possible that Bud Selig could ask for permanent banishment, though it would be hard to convince an arbitrator, if Rodriguez appeals, that his first suspension should be for life.